2017 review Continuedfrom Pg 6 WORLD EVENTS CES 2018 USA


9 - 12 January 2018 Las Vegas, NV


Consumer Electronics Show, will be held from 09 Jan to 12 Jan 2018. The venue of the Trade Show will be at the Las Vegas Convention Center which is a great place for such a crucial event.


CES is a trade-only event and is not open to the general public. Industry pro- fessionals are encouraged to register in advance to ensure quicker review time and processing on-site. For general attendees, registration is $100 through De- cember 18 and will increase to $300 on December 19. More than 25 locations throughout Las Vegas are designated for badge pickup, including key locations at McCarran International Airport, official show hotels and exhibit venues. CES International 2018 is a medium where many highly recommended products and solutions are exhibited. Several of these tend to be about Technology, Busi- ness, Wireless, Printing, Consumer Electronics, Business Technology, Content Creation, Digital Imaging, Consumer Technology and Computer Hardware. CES International 2018 is organized annually. This year’s annual meeting in Las Vegas will be expected to get more than 177393 participants.


BETT 2018 ExCeL London UK


Wednesday 24th January, 10:00 - 18:00 Thursday 25th January, 10:00 - 18:00 Friday 26th January, 10:00 - 18:00 Saturday 27th January, 10:00 - 15:00


BETT is the first industry show of the year in the education technology landscape, bringing together 850 leading companies, 103 exciting new edtech start-ups and over 34,700 attendees (131 countries represented) from the global education community. They come together to celebrate, find inspiration and discuss the future of education, as well as the role technology and innova- tion plays in enabling all educators and learners to thrive. “At BETT we believe in creating a better future by transforming education. Our mission is to bring together people, ideas, practices and technologies so that educators and learners can fulfil their potential.” “We believe everyone has the potential to make a difference in education. We are passionate about discovering, elevating and amplifying these game changers.” To register for your place at BETT 2018, please go to: https://lp.events. ascential.com/BETT-Update-Details.html?actioncode=WEB&_ ga=2.807857.1034925720.1506261877-372435180.1485689794


ISE 2018


RAI Amsterdam Europaplein 2-22 1078 GZ Amsterdam The Netherlands


Tuesday, 6 February 2018 10:00 – 18:00 hrs Wednesday, 7 February 2018 09:30 – 18:00 hrs Thursday, 8 February 2018 09:30 – 18:00 hrs Friday, 9 February 2018 09:30 – 16:00 hrs


As well as presenting over 1,200 leading technology and solutions providers, ISE 2018 will showcase a unique set of conferences, keynote speeches, training programmes, and show floor events. These take place pre-show and throughout the four-day exhibition.


For those not in possession of a free pass, online pre-registration (available until 5 February 2018) costs: €100 + VAT (Ticket valid for all four show days) Registration onsite costs: €150 + VAT (Ticket valid for all four show days). Registrations for ISE 2018 opens on 1 October 2017.


DJ Eric Prydz’s holographically-enhanced performance for his EPIC 5.0 show, debuting at London’s Victoria Park.


September 2017


More merger and acquisition in the AV sector this month. Coret- ronic completed the acquisition of Calibre, a privately held Brit- ish image processing technol- ogy manufacturer. Coretronic manufactures the largest num- ber of DLP projectors in the world, and is the ODM supplier to the majority of the world’s Tier 1 DLP projector brands. The acquisition of Calibre ex- pands Coretronic’s technology capability by the addition of Calibre’s compelling range of class leading HQUltra image processing technology and in- house R&D capabilities. Exertis announced the acquisition of MTR Group Limited (“MTR”), a service and solutions provider


P8 AV News January 2018


specialising in 2nd generation lifecycle extension of mobile, wearable and tablet devices. MTR generated sales of £10.8 million for the twelve months ended 30 November 2016 and has seen significant and sustained year on year growth since its incorporation in 2011 A sign that consolidation in UK distributions has gone a little too far is the initiation success of US newcomers Stampede re- storing some of vendor brand’s choice.


Prysm portfolio. Prysm claimed that its partners enjoy higher revenue margins than compet- ing products, and is “able to


architect the ideal digital work- place solution for end custom- ers through a combination of software and hardware”.


October 2017


Sony claimed to be the only B2B manufacturer to move completely to 4K for its latest range of professional displays.


August 2017


Advances in holography were on show this month with Ho- lo-Gauze technology instru- mental in helping Realtime Environmental Systems (RES) and creative director Liam To- maszewski to realise superstar DJ Eric Prydz’s holographical- ly-enhanced performance for his EPIC 5.0 show, debuting at London’s Victoria Park in front of an audience of 15,000. Projected onto a huge, highly transparent and reflective 20 m x 9 m Holo-Gauze screen, mind-bending animations – including a giant astronaut – created the “biggest hologram in the world”, according to Prydz. ISE also acknowledged the emerging role of new real- ities with the announcement of cooperation with the VR Days Europe


festival which took


place in Amsterdam on 25-27 October 2017. The spread of


AV into daily life was confirmed by research from Futuresource Consulting revealed that almost 1 in 3 consumers live in homes where at least one smart home device has been installed. The smart home is poised to emerge by stealth, as consumers who install their first device will be keen on automating further, with the VPA (Voice Personal Assistant) being a leading con- tender. Over 4,000 consumers in France, Germany, UK and USA were surveyed on smart home devices, appliance own- ership,


perceptions and pur-


chase intent. Voice Personal Assistant (VPA) speakers were included, those looking at both current and future adoption. Currently, the “smart speaker” is the leading device format for the VPA, but others are starting to emerge.


But the consolidation contin- ued. Midwich has announced that it has acquired a majority stake in Gebroeders van Dom- burg B.V., a specialist distribu- tor of audio visual and lighting solutions in the Netherlands. Van Domburg has a particular strength in the large format display market, with a devel- oping interactive and technical product offering. The Compa- ny distributes key audio-visu- al brands such as Samsung, NEC and AMX. Even emerging technologies were not free from the consolidation trend. Mark Kornfilt, co-founder & CEO, Livestream: “I have very excit- ing news to share. Yesterday, we announced that Vimeo will be acquiring Livestream, and that we’ll soon be joining forc- es. For the past decade, our mission has been to enable or- ganisations to share experienc- es through live video, unlock-


November 2017


Our report on huddle spaces flagged up changes in working practices, confirmed by a Fu- turesource survey that found that the average weekly meeting room use in France, Germany, the U.K., and the U.S., has risen by 50 percent since 2014. Survey respondents also indicated that 20 percent of its whole sample, intended to add new meeting spaces to their offices within the next few years good news to fin- ish 2017. Such is the impact of ISE today, that we were already assessing its likely implications


five months before the event: Jeff Hastings, CEO of BrightSign believed that ISE 2018 will be a consolidatory year, building on technologies, like 4K and collaboration, that are just en- tering the mainstream. “People are talking about 8K, but it’s just too far away.” Less cheerful news was received in the form of the demise of Misco: In its heyday, Misco had revenues over £300 million, operating profits of over £10 million and more than 600 staff. Administration was an- nounced just seven months after a new management team head- ed by Alan Cantwell, backed by Hilco Capital, bought the UK and European business from long-time par- ent Systemax for £1. Problems be- setting the compa- ny before the new team took over are being blamed for its demise, rather than any structural weak- ness in the sector. Let’s hope so.


Huddle spaces: a bright spot to end the year. December 2017


Perhaps we can be forgiven for hogging the limelight with this comment on the month. Follow- ing 10 years of sterling service, we finally got around to refresh- ing our web site, avnews.eu, replacing the quaint but rather less than modern edition. The new site is much more stylish and progressive, plus it pro- vides better integration with our social media resources and YouTube channel. Our Awards team reported a new nomina- tion record for the 2018 edi- tion of the AV News Awards, with the pre- sentation cer- emony to be held as usual on the open- ing morning of the ISE


2018 show in Amsterdam. With the shows in the early part of the New Year widely antici-


pated, December is tradition- ally a quiet news month. But we did have the announcement by Canon of the world’s small- est, lightest 4K projector. Not exactly riveting perhaps, but there is so much more to come in the next few weeks. Check out our mid-month digital edi- tions, our ISE Preview in this edition – and don’t forget our Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn feeds when preparing for the New Year.


ing a world where every event is available live online. We’re thrilled to be joining the Vimeo team. Together, we will contin- ue to innovate in the world of video and live storytelling.” The service offering in AV was be- coming increasingly important. Maverick rebranded as Maver- ick AV Solutions, reflecting the role of the service wrap around key


products like Microsoft


Surface Hub, ScanSource an- nounced the addition of Life- size video conferencing tech- nology to its line card through ScanSource Communications in the US and Canada and ScanSource Imago in Europe. The addition of Lifesize provid- ed partners with an integrated, cloud-based application and industry-leading, connected conference room devices for audio, video and web confer- encing alongside ScanSource’s support services.


The new AV News web site – a refreshed design after 10 years of sterling service.


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